theglobaljournal.net: Latest activities of group #06

The Devil in the Details

2012-02-07T14:49:52Z

Guantánamo Bay and the future of legal “black holes”.

When one nation (or clan or tribe or ethnic group) covets the land of another, the result, throughout history, has usually been aggression. It is conceivable that this cause/effect may even be hard-wired into human nature. But at the end of the 19th century, a more pragmatic approach –territorial leasing– began, spontaneously and sporadically, to appear. Under a territorial leasing agreement, the leaser pays to use and exercise jurisdiction over a territory while the lessee retains sovereignty. Wherever it has been tried, territorial leasing has proven to be much less disruptive and quite a lot cheaper than war.

Michael J. Strauss first got interested in the question of territorial leases when he was a wire service journalist in Europe and learned about a little known agreement between France and Spain that had quietly put to rest over 500 years of bloody dispute. Concerning several valleys in the Pyrenees, the lease ensured Spain’s sovereignty while giving French farmers the right to graze their flocks there. Strauss would use the story as the basis of his doctoral dissertation in international relations, turning up other examples (Tin Bigha on the Bangladesh/India border; Tiwintza between Ecuador and Peru; Naharayim/Baqura and Zofar/Al-Ghamr in Israel/Jordan) where territorial leasing has resolved intractable conflict over land.

To read the full article, order a copy of the magazine

by Sarah Meyer de Stadelhofen
photographs by Edmund Clark

5 Years In Chinese Homes

2011-10-23T14:19:21Z

Photographer Marrigje de Maar takes us on a personal journey into many Chinese homes. Each picture speaks about an individual or a group of people. The sense of welcome is present, whatever life has given or taken. Her book, Red Roses Yellow Rain is a fascinating contribution to a better understanding of why China remains as much as ever the Middle Kingdom.

Six years ago, Marrigje de Maar started traveling in China. Between 2005 and 2010, she photographed hundreds of interiors. Five journeys to find out what ‘home’ means to the Chinese. Five trips that took her to many corners of China: from Xinjiang and Qinhai to Heilongjiang, from the fringes of Tibet to the mountains of Guizhou and Yunnan, from Inner Mongolia to Shanxi, Fujian and Beijing. Marrigje de Maar has gone straight to the heart of Chinese life.

To see the full article, order a copy of the magazine

photographs by Marrigje de Maar

Global Trade for Dummies

2011-10-21T14:44:38Z

An Accessible, Clear and Concise Account of International Trade

Understanding Global Trade focuses on what lies at the core of globalization: international trade and production across national boundaries. It might seem too ambitious a scope given that the literature on international trade is huge. Furthermore, most of the knowledge generally published remains way too technical for a non-trained reader to apprehend. Yet, Helpman achieves this feat in a remarkable way.

He follows the historical evolution of international trade and presents, in plain English, the theories applied to economics over the last two centuries, including David Ricardo’s approach to foreign trade and the Heckscher-Ohlin model. The book brings the reader up to date with previous literature in order to tackle current pressing issues such as the global crisis of 2008, which highlighted the interdependence of the global economy. In describing the way that analysis of trade flows has shifted from the sectorial level to business-firm level, Helpman elucidates the growing roles of multinational corporations, offshoring and outsourcing in the international division of labor. His account is supplemented by accessible and useful graphs and charts. Because this book makes available the results of major advances in international trade research, and explains how these theories inform current affairs, it will be invaluable to a large audience including policy makers, political and social scientists and those who follow world affairs.

–L. P.

Understanding Global Trade Elhanan Helpman, Harvard University Press, $23.95

Laos, China’s Temptation

2011-10-18T22:32:52Z

China may not share a long border with Laos but the untapped resources of this beautiful, rural country present a temptation hard to resist. China has become Laos’ second largest investor and trading partner with mega dam and transport projects as well as numerous cross border casinos which are forbidden fruit in China. But how welcome is this jump into Chinese style modernity for the gentle Laotians? Despite the arrival of new wealth and jobs, many are looking askance at changes to their traditional way of life not seen since French colonial times.

The aircraft has hardly taxied to a stop on the modest runway of Huay Xai, a strip of asphalt in the middle of a rice paddy in North-Western Laos, when the Chinese passengers emerge. Having filled almost every seat on the plane, they are now being welcomed with open arms by a line of young women in red qipao, the traditional Chinese dress, and another line of hard-faced men in paramilitary uniforms, likewise Chinese. The tourists hurriedly pack into a Golden Triangle Tours bus, led by three Hummers in colors inspired by American police cars. In this region where the borders of Laos and Thailand meet, where Burma is not far away, the Chinese mafia is opening the way for a new tourist destination: a casino on the banks of the Mekong. It is here that a Hong Kong-registered company has taken out a 99-year concession on Laotian soil, 200 miles from China by road.

Business at the King’s Roman Casino should be brisk: its biggest competitor in Laos, the Royal Jinlun Hotel in Boten, a few hundred meters from the Chinese border post, recently closed its doors. Beijing was not happy about activities taking place in this other Chinese “concession”. Gambling is banned in mainland China, so mafia gangs are now specializing in opening casinos abroad in neighboring countries. Royal Jinlun, a massive complex that was supposed to become a Las Vegas of gambling and sex in the middle of the jungle, opened its doors in 2003. Boten had little of Laos. Its merchants accepted only Chinese yuan. The prostitutes, like their customers, came from China. The cuisine –served with chopsticks– was that of Chongqing, Sichuan or Fujian.

To see the full article, order a copy of the magazine

by Harold Thibault
photography by Tim Franco

Another High Level Discussion of Globalization

2011-09-25T21:53:10Z

More than 200 business and academic leaders came to Switzerland in June to discuss how to change the widespread anti-globalization attitudes that persist in many countries. Participants at the Zermatt Summit on Humanizing Globalization (June 16-18) heard testimony from CEOs, academics and spiritual leaders from 18 countries about introducing ethics into today’s globalized business environment.

More than 200 business and academic leaders came to Switzerland in June
to discuss how to change the widespread anti-globalization attitudes that persist
in many countries. Participants at the Zermatt Summit on Humanizing Globalization
(June 16-18) heard testimony from CEOs, academics and spiritual leaders from
18 countries about introducing ethics into today’s globalized business environment.

Some participants came all the way from the Cordillera de los Andes to the Swiss alpine resort of Zermatt. The delegation of businessmen from Chile and Argentina boarded a small, mountain cog train –the only way the village can be reached– no cars allowed.
The high mountain pastures, deep gorges and Roman aqueducts they passed were perhaps unfamiliar but the distant snow-capped peaks must have reminded them of the location of their own summit on the same subject, planned for October. The Aconcagua Summit is named after the highest peak in the Americas on the border between Chile and Argentina.

The participants were welcomed to Zermatt by summit organizer Christopher Wasserman, President of Ecophilos, a Swiss foundation whose credo is that respect for people is not incompatible with business success. He said the purpose of the gathering was to change hearts and minds. “Our ambition is to contribute to humanizing practices in a globalized business environment.”
The often violent protests against globalization the world saw in the 1990s may have abated but recent polls show that many still have doubts about globalization which they blame for factory closings, outsourced jobs and unfair trade practices.
For three days, the Zermatt participants discussed leadership and statesmanship, putting ethics back into banking, doing virtuous business, the common good and women as actors of change. The ethical responsibility of CEOs was emphasized under the theme Servant Leadership –those who recognize the radical idea that the real goal of business is to serve the community, not simply generate profits for invisible shareholders.

To read the full article, order a copy of the magazine

by Pamela Taylor

Young Blogger Revolutionaries Point the Way

2011-09-25T21:51:49Z

For young bloggers and activists from around the world, especially those participating in the Arab Spring revolts of 2011, there is no question that Internet connectivity has become the weapon of choice for waging cultural revolutions in the 21st century.

Seven of them came to Geneva in June to tell their poignant and often dramatic tales about how Internet technology not only helps anti-government protestors organize but also to get the story out when brutal crackdowns begin and foreign reporters are not allowed in. Their message was that this new media weapon has a very contagious potential as long as the Internet remains open to all.

The activists came from Burma, China, Egypt, Indonesia, North Korea, Tunisia and Uganda, socalled ‘freedom fellows’ sponsored by the US State Department and a Geneva-based NGO, the Institute for Media and Global Governance (IMGG). Their testimony at a panel discussion on “The Human Voice of Freedom: The Internet and Human Rights” coincided with the 17th session of the UN Human Rights Council (May 30-June 17).

To read the full article, order a copy of the magazine

by Pamela Taylor

Identity in a Global World

2011-09-20T07:29:07Z

If the idea of world governance is disturbing, the idea of an actual world government, the stage for the final dispossession of national sovereignty, is alarming. Should we regret the time when the master of the house imposed his will on his household, where the lord of the castle ruled over his domain and serfs, where the king reigned over his people? History tells us the contrary. As power expands to occupy ever bigger spheres it is accompanied, sooner or later, by a growth in the spheres of individual liberty. But on the way, societies experience change, often violent change. Should we fear global governance? No. At this time of challenges on a planetary scale, it is in the absence of global governance, that danger lies; in the illusion that governance exists, or, inversely, in our refusal to recognize what passes for governance.

On the other hand, loss of identity is an even worse risk. Uniqueness, according to some company directors who enjoy remarkable success on a global scale, is the key to survival. Photographer and filmmaker Wim Wenders intuitively acknowledges the same truth, even if he sees the dissolution of identity as one of the primary effects of globalization. For Marc A. Hayek, globalization creates both the opportunity and the need to strengthen identity; loss of identity is a harbinger of death. In fact, the two men agree on the importance of being distinctive –and are highly likely to meet on the far side of the world, as they both enjoy traveling so much. Let’s spare them a visit to Guantanamo, a territorial black hole, swallower of identity, and a void from which it is difficult to return to the real world. Over there on the island of Cuba, 172 prisoners are living side by side with released detainees and their guards, or –for the released– their ‘roommates’. In this issue, Edmund Clark and Michael Strauss give two particularly powerful points of view of Guantanamo, one through images and the other through its ‘extraordinary’ laws.

As he has done before, when challenging the detractors who criticize the WTO for failing to conclude the Doha Development Round, Pascal Lamy, director general of the WTO, is speaking out again; this time about the use of GDPs and import/export balances as yardsticks to measure the world. He wants to apply another benchmark, that of added value, and he is right. In this view, he is joined by Armatya Sen whose comparison between India and China denounces mere economic growth for its own sake. According to the Nobel Prize winner, India has grown financially –but without ensuring that the distribution of wealth improves life for all Indians. Professor Sen dares to suggest that China comes out better than his native country on several counts. It’s a pity that India is so keen to charm (recently, a Swiss daily produced a panegyric on India’s financial weight gain on nearly every page), without regard for the added value in favor of each Indian citizen. India may be more democratic than China but it still has work to do, is the basic message from the Harvard Professor of Economy.

The photographs from journeys in China by Marrigje de Maar, who spent five years visiting Chinese homes, tell us a lot. Not just about the modesty of the Middle Kingdom inhabitants, but also their capacity to look towards the future. Coincidentally, Marrigje, like Wim Wenders, has refused to put people into her images, they, like us, are on the other side of the lens. A choice not made by Harold Thibault and Tim Franco, who, on behalf of The Global Journal set off for Laos, a new “suburb” of China, where Mandarin is increasingly heard and taught.

Another form of loss of identity is experienced by women trafficked by men. Kathryn Bolkovac, a former American policewoman, who spent time working for Dyncorp (a private military company), now living in the Netherlands, has become the symbol of resistance in the face of silence and the neglect of obliterated feminine identities consigned to prostitution. Her narrative book, and the film inspired by her experiences, are two ways of getting closer to the drama involving both her employer DynCorp and its commissioning agent, the United Nations. She speaks freely to The Global Journal. Something Plantu, concerned about freedom of speech, would appreciate.

June 2011,
Jean-Christophe Nothias
Editor in Chief

UN Schedules Public Screening of Controversial Film

2011-08-12T20:03:21Z

The United Nations New York headquarters has decided to organize a public screening of the controversial film The Whistleblower which doesn’t exactly make the UN look good. The film, starring Rachel Weisz and Vanessa Redgrave, is a political thriller about sex trafficking in Bosnia involving UN peacekeepers.

First-time director Larysa Kondracki based the film on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, as US cop who takes a job with a private contracting firm in postwar Bosnia, only to uncover a sex trafficking operation.

A statement from the UN Public Affairs Office said “the movie provides an opportunity for the UN to address these issues head-on by acknowledging lapses, and by pointing to what has been done to address them, both as it relates to international efforts against sex-trafficking and internal measures in the UN to tighten controls and accountability."

Deputy Press spokesman, Farhar Haq said that in the decade since the events depicted in the film took place, the UN has put human trafficking and violence against women high on its agenda and has instituted important systems to handle misconduct in peacekeeping operations and to protect whistleblowers.

“The UN believes human trafficking an extremely crucial matter and that more must b done and a number of our offices are already doing more. We also appreciate the effort of this film director to bring this matter to the public,” he said, adding that it has not yet been decided if there will be a panel discussion following the film’s showing.

The Whistleblower premiered at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York City in June and opens in other cities in North America on August 12.

The Global Journal has scheduled a screening of the film in Geneva on October 1st.

The July/August issue of the Global Journal features interviews with film director Kathryn Bolkovac and human rights lawyer Madeleine Rees as well as a review of the film.

Exclusive Interview with Wim Wenders: Global Identity

2011-07-11T12:10:35Z

“I’m more interested in places when I take photographs. Movies always deal with people, anyway, so in photography I can finally do more justice to places. What they can tell us if you’re willing to listen to them. They have a lot of stories to tell, a lot of history, too.”

To read the interview, order a copy of the magazine

The Watchmaker with Global Management in his DNA

2011-07-11T11:57:54Z

Swiss watchmaker Marc A. Hayek cherishes those who make watches and those who love them. In this interview he talks about looking towards a global market and the surprises he faces when thinking locally and acting globally. The voice is soft, almost guarded, but the thinking is clear and far-reaching. A short lesson in globalization.

At the heart of the Swatch empire, both a family and a global group, grandson Marc A. Hayek is slowly but surely spreading his wings. As deeply committed as his grandfather was, he now presides over the destiny of three luxury, prestigious brands: Blancpain, Breguet and Jacquet Droz. It is not easy to follow in the footsteps of such an inspired genius, the man who relaunched the watch industry with a brilliant, opposite tactic –a good value, mass market watch– while remaining passionate about prestige watchmaking. Marc A. Hayek is an entrepreneur who works on the global scale. Blancpain has gone from 65 to 650 employees. Breguet is continuing to expand and Jaquet Droz is starting to show its teeth. His consuming passion is to develop their identity and their “DNA”, as he calls it.

A few years ago, with two friends, you opened a restaurant called Colors in Zurich. Why did you abandon this baby in 2002 at the very moment that you were contemplating opening a second establishment in Milan?

In watchmaking, as in gastronomy, there is always that exceptional product, the one you want to be part of. I’ve never been against working either in watchmaking or with the family. It’s true that I was on the point of opening a second restaurant in Milan because things were well established in Zurich and I said to myself, “let’s keep moving”. But then the Swatch Group’s offer happened and Blancpain was part of the proposal. I had fallen in love with Blancpain well before it became part of the group. It was the main reason for rejoining the family group –a completely unexpected return. A second important aspect concerned the management philosophy of the group. Swatch has always put entrepreneurial people in positions of responsibility: people capable of fully embodying the brand, while respecting the rules of the group. That allows managers the freedom to act in a spirit of initiative and independence. So, the idea was definitely not to enter a cartesian universe, deprived of this entrepreneurial spirit and the sense of responsibility that goes with it. Another important factor in my decision was to do with the human size of Blancpain: in such a structure it’s possible to be involved in the details, from the creation right through to the commercialization.

So you moved from local to global status!

And that has become more marked with the passing years. Today I manage three brands –Blancpain, Breguet and Jaquet Droz. As an executive of the Swatch Group, I look after the prestige and luxury range, and I supervise the markets in South America, central America and the Caribbean, without being involved in an operational capacity. The three brands are enough to occupy my day.

To read the full interview, order a copy of the magazine

by Jean-Christophe Nothias, photography Rita Scaglia